During "The Early
Years" I had traveled to France
for a French girlfriend. In France I fell
in love again, except this time it was with the city
called Paris. I spent my time
as a bohemian on the streets of the Paris with performance
artists. When I returned to America, I strolled into
my neighborhood junk shop called “The King
of Records," a magical place. On his 50th
birthday, the neighborhood gave him a huge birthday party
and officially
coronated him as the “The King of the neighborhood." His
junkshop was always filled with jazz musicians and performers.
At night he would close the curtains, and the junkshop
would turn into a Cabaret.
One day as the King and I were driving through the alleys
of Boston , I confessed that I really wanted to become
an artist. The
king then handed me a box of expensive Oil Pastelse that
someone had just put in the trash.
So
I came home and started making my first paintings.After
a while I was spending so much time with
the King that the neighborhood started calling
me "The
Prince." So I created a series of mythical
self portraits. With
art, I could be anything I wanted, a "Court Jester," a "Cabaret
Performer" and "a Prince". For
launching my career as an artist, I titled my Paris
exhibition: "Le
Petit Prince de La Peinture" (The
Little Prince of Painting) as a tribute to the imagination
and how the King transformed my life...